Mental rotation of pictured body stimuli: Involvement of visual representation of the stimuli

Tsubasa Kawasaki, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Takahiro Higuchi, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Abstract

The present study investigated whether the time required for
recognizing rotated body stimuli was matched strictly with the magnitude of
correspondence regarding rotation angles between the stimulus and the body.
Twelve young adults sat in front the computer monitor while their body was facing
to it (no body rotation) or was rotating to the side by 90 degrees. They
classified a body stimulus (hand or foot) presented with one of four orientations
(0°, 90°, 180°, -90°) according to their laterality. The
result showed that the time required for the classification was generally matched
with the magnitude of correspondence regarding the rotation angles. However, the
classification time was the longest for the 180-deg rotated stimulus even while
the body was rotated by 90 degrees, demonstrating that the magnitude of rotation
of the body stimuli itself affected the MR. It is likely that visual
representation of the stimuli, as well as the body schema, is involved in the
MR.